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Jackson LJ backs Australian-style facilitators to control expert witness costs

Lord Justice Jackson has backed the use of 'facilitators' to control the cost of expert witnesses in complex civil litigation cases, such as construction or IT.

Rightmove founder to buy will writing and personal injury firms

In-Deed, the business set up by Rightmove founder Harry Hill to provide seamless property services including conveyancing, will expand into legal services such as will writing and personal injury as soon as alternative business structures legislation is in place, Solicitors Journal can reveal.

Mortgage rescue tenant cannot be evicted by housing association

A woman who rented her house back from a mutual housing association after struggling to pay the mortgage was a tenant and could not be evicted unless certain conditions were met, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled this morning.

Supreme Court awards female cohabitee 90 per cent of home's value

The Supreme Court has allowed the appeal by a former cohabitee that she should get 90 per cent of the former couple's home, restoring the trial judge's decision to depart from the traditional assumption that interest in the property should be split 50-50.

SRA unveils 'passport to practice' for global firms

The SRA is proposing to sweep away the old system of registering foreign offices of City-based global firms and bring in a single 'international passport to practice'.

Supreme Court patent ruling 'brings UK closer to Europe'

A ruling by the Supreme Court on the validity of a patent protecting a gene sequence used in a new drug aimed at tackling the auto-immune disease lupus has brought UK laws closer to those used by other states in European Patent Convention.

How will the market changes impact upon the values and behaviours of this year's trainees?

By Michael Shaw, Managing Partner, Cobbetts

Sole practitioners and barristers most at risk from naming and shaming, France says

The impact of LeO's new policy of publishing the names of individual lawyers and firms could be particularly serious for sole practitioners and barristers, Liz France, chair of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC), has said.